Modern Day Computer Repair
July 13th, 2008
What is this a picture of? That, my friends, was the inside of my old computer set up. For reasons beyond me, the fan on my processor decided to die. Obviously my compy was not happy with this, and things got a little heated between us. I didn’t enjoy my compy crashing on me, so I had to find a replacement fan. Tried looking for another one, but couldn’t find one that would fit. Now the normal thing to have done is order a new proper fan, but I’m a silly one.
Instead, I fashioned a tube from a large Ziploc bag and tape. I stretched one end over the processor heatsink and the other end over the case fan, as you can see in the picture. Surprisingly, this worked quite well. My computer no longer froze up on me, giving me those odd beeps. And for the time being, things were good again. Until the weather started getting warmer.
Once the Summer sun decided to start baking my room, my computer started to beep and freeze again. I avoided using processor heavy programs to keep the heat down, but this could only do so much. After a few weeks of this lazy set up, I removed the tube and added a fan to my cpu heatsink again. Except it wasn’t the right size.
I found a 60 mm fan for my 70 mm heatsink. I could only put in one screw, while the other 3 corners would dangle. But ghetto as this was, it worked. My compy didn’t freeze anymore, or make odd noises. Life was good again. Until my compy decided to die on me.
Even with the small fan, I guess it was weak solution a little too late. With a dead proc, I decided I might as well get an upgrade, rather than buying the same processor again. I bought a new motherboard, a power supply, some ram, and a processor, heatsink and fan. I kept my old drives, the video card, and my case.
So now, things are good again, now that I have a faster compy than before. But in the end, I ended up turning a 15 dollar 70 mm cpu fan into a 240 dollar system upgrade. Oh silly me.
July 13th, 2008 at 2:25 pm
So what’d you end up going with for the higher specs? This an entirely homebuilt machine? Right now, I’m trying to decide between a Newegg’d desktop I’ll construct myself or a laptop that’s not as upgradable. Your thoughts?
July 13th, 2008 at 3:19 pm
I’m running an Intel Pentium Dual E2180 2.00 GHz @ 2.43 GHz. It’s a cheaper processor, but I read that it was very overclockable, hence the 2.43 GHz. I’d kick it up to 2.66 GHz, but the case’s circulation isnt too fantastic. It’s sitting on a ECS (generic) micro ATX mobo that happened to be cheap and had Dual core support. The cpu is cooled by a Masscool fan/heatsink, which came highly rated for this specific processor, in regards to overclocking and stability. I ordered these parts from Tiger Direct because the prices were cheap and the shipping was BLAZING fast. (Apparently they have a warehouse in Hodgkins, IL)
I ordered two generic 1 gig sticks of pc5300 (667 mhz) DDR2 ram from Newegg. They were cheap, had dozens of positive reviews, and came with heat spreaders.
Newegg is a nice place to buy your parts, but remember to check out Tiger Direct, if not for savings, at least the shipping time.
As for desktop vs laptop, it really comes down to you. Price vs. Mobility being the main factor. I personally would always have at least a desktop.
July 13th, 2008 at 9:29 pm
I’ve never been too into overclocking (I’m pretty comfortable running at the original speeds), so I’ve been looking at more of the Intel Core 2 Duo or Quad processor sets available. This would be my first from the ground up machine rather than the upgrades I’ve performed on plenty in the past, so it’ll be a bit interesting